The cars rebelled. Plastic trim melted. Glue seeped out of the windscreens. Hammond’s Golf began to smell like a burning toaster. The production crew, following in air-conditioned Land Cruisers, wore hazmat suits just to hand the boys water. The Rub' al Khali is a beautiful liar. It looks solid. It is not.
"One cannot describe this heat," Clarkson narrated, wiping his brow with a sock. "This is the heat you feel when you open an oven to check on a pizza, except the pizza is you, and the oven is the entire planet." top gear middle eastern special
"Traction," May explained, laying the carpet under the wheels. "It’s the same principle as the Egyptians using logs to build the pyramids. Except we are idiots, and the pyramids are a 1996 Fiat Barchetta." The cars rebelled
It seemed like a good idea at the time. Send three middle-aged men—one who looks like a confused geography teacher, one who dresses like a rejected 90s pop star, and one who is, well, a hamster—into the furnace of the Middle East. Give them three cheap, decaying convertibles. Tell them to find the lost city of Ubar, also known as "The Atlantis of the Sands." Hammond’s Golf began to smell like a burning toaster
Jeremy Clarkson, predictably, bought a BMW 325i Convertible. "It's a six-cylinder masterpiece of German efficiency," he boomed, as the electric roof failed within thirty seconds of leaving Dubai.
And James May? He bought a 1996 Fiat Barchetta. A tiny, flimsy, Italian two-seater that looked like a ballet shoe. "It is the prettiest car here," he noted, peering at the engine. "It also appears to be leaking all of its bodily fluids onto this pristine hotel driveway." The Middle East special is not about driving. It is about survival. As the trio crossed from the UAE into Oman, the ambient temperature hit 48 degrees Celsius.